Robertson v. Ticor Title Insurance Co. of Florida

982 N.E.2d 9, 2012 WL 6608113, 2012 Ind. App. LEXIS 631
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 19, 2012
DocketNo. 49A02-1110-PL-971
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 982 N.E.2d 9 (Robertson v. Ticor Title Insurance Co. of Florida) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robertson v. Ticor Title Insurance Co. of Florida, 982 N.E.2d 9, 2012 WL 6608113, 2012 Ind. App. LEXIS 631 (Ind. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

MATHIAS, Judge.

The Insurance Commissioner of the State of Indiana initiated administrative proceedings against Ticor Title Insurance Company of Florida (“Ticor”) after an investigation revealed that Ticor was charging potentially excessive and discriminatory title insurance rates to its Indiana customers. A hearing was held and a hearing officer for the Indiana Department of Insurance (“the IDOI”) determined that Ticor’s title insurance rates were excessive and discriminatory. The hearing officer issued an order directing Ticor to, in part, refund excessive premiums, establish an internal control process to ensure that the appropriate premium is charged to Ticor’s customers, and pay unpaid premium taxes. Ticor subsequently filed a Petition for Judicial Review of Administrative Order in Marion Superior Court. After a hearing was held on the petition, the trial court issued findings of fact and conclusions of law reversing the administrative order. The IDOI appeals and raises the following issues:

I. Whether the trial court failed to appropriately defer to the IDOI’s interpretation of the Rate Statute when the court accepted Ticor’s interpretation of that statute in issuing its findings of fact and conclusions of law and,
II. Whether the trial court erred when it reversed the administrative order because the administrative hearing officer’s findings of fact and conclusions of law are supported by substantial evidence.

Concluding that the IDOI’s interpretation of the Rate Statute was reasonable and that the administrative hearing officer’s findings of fact are supported by substantial evidence, we reverse and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Facts and Procedural History

Ticor is licensed to write title insurance in Indiana. Ticor operates in Indiana solely through twenty-six independent non-affiliated agencies. These independent insurance agents have been appointed by Ticor pursuant to written agency agreements for the purpose of preparing and issuing Ticor’s title insurance policies.

The Indiana Department of Insurance, which is authorized by statute to regulate the practice of title insurance in Indiana, commenced a target market examination of Ticor on April 25, 2008. The examination investigated Ticor’s title insurance transactions for the 2007 calendar year. IDOI appointed Noble Consulting Services (“Noble”) as the examiner.

After interviewing Ticor’s representatives and its appointed insurance agents and reviewing Ticor’s agency contracts authorizing certain title insurance agents to sell its products, premium remittance reports, financial statements and HUD-1 settlement statements, Noble prepared a target market conduct examination report. The report was submitted to the IDOI Commissioner on November 12, 2008. In the report, Noble alleged that Ticor 1) lacked proper governance and oversight over its duly appointed insurance agents, 2) the agents charged premium rates higher than Ticor’s contractual rates, 3) Ticor’s [13]*13internal controls did not ensure that the agents charged rates in accordance with Ticor’s contractual rates, 4) Ticor did not audit its independent agents to determine the accuracy of the premium remittances, 5) Ticor’s internal control program failed to identify premium remittance as a key risk area, 6) the internal control program failed to verify the accuracy of the premium remittance, which creates a risk that Ticor underpays premium tax, 7) Ticor failed to audit its independent agent’s compliance with the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RESPA”), 8) the agents violated Indiana law by charging inconsistent premium rates, and 9) Ticor’s internal controls should ensure that its agents charge consistent premium rates.

Noble’s report concentrated on the business practices of three agencies operating under limited agency agreements with Ti-cor: HomeQuest Title, LLC, Title Source, Inc., and Data Search, Inc. Noble concentrated on these agencies because they account for nearly 70% of the title insurance premiums written for Ticor in Indiana in 2007. The agency agreement between Ti-cor and all insurance agencies specify that agents should charge and collect premiums in accordance with Ticor’s rate book. The rates in the rate book apply only to insurance premium rates and do not include other settlement services.

Noble concluded that the three agencies charged premium rates that were higher than those listed in the rate book. Specifically, 401 of 504 closings performed by HomeQuest resulted in premiums higher than the Ticor rate book, 719 of Title Source’s 1009 closings resulted in premiums exceeding the Ticor rate, and 307 of 590 closings performed by Data Search resulted in excessive premiums. Noble concluded that in the aggregate, the three agencies charged $116,000 more in title insurance premiums than they were authorized to charge under Ticor’s rate book. Noble also concluded that the three agencies were allowed to utilize separate rate books to calculate title insurance premiums; therefore, Indiana consumers purchasing the same amount of title insurance from Ticor agents paid different premium rates. Noble also concluded that the agents routinely violated RESPA by failing to itemize the settlement charges on the HUD statements.

In concluding its report, Noble recommended that Ticor implement internal controls and perform periodic audits to insure the accuracy of the premiums charged to consumers. Noble also recommended that Ticor audit its Indiana agents for compliance with RESPA. Finally, Noble urged Ticor to ensure that the agents charge consumers the contractual premium rate on a consistent basis.

On July 22, 2009, Ticor submitted to the IDOI its written objection to Noble’s report. Shortly thereafter, the Commissioner of the IDOI issued an Order Regarding the Market Conduct Examination Report and Rebuttal wherein the Commissioner “concluded that [Ticor] has potentially violated several provisions of the Indiana Code: (i) violations of Indiana Code §§ 27-4-1 et seq. related to excessive and unfairly discriminatory insurance premium rates charged to consumers and (ii) the failure to properly account for and pay premium tax in accordance with Ind.Code § 27-1-18-2.” Appellant’s App. pp. 135-36. A two-day evidentiary hearing was then held over the violations described in Noble’s report.

On September 3, 2010, the hearing officer issued an Administrative Order, in which the officer concluded that for the purposes of ensuring RESPA compliance and performing title searches, the investigated agencies were not agents of Ticor. But the hearing officer found that Ticor [14]*14and its independent agents do have an agency relationship for the purpose of charging premium rates, collecting premiums and the payment of premium taxes. The officer further concluded that Ticor allowed its agents to charge premiums in excess of its rate schedule and charge different premium rates to consumers that are of the same class and involve the same risk. The hearing officer also found that Ticor “does not have an adequate internal control environment” and was therefore complicit in HomeQuest’s “failure to charge consistent premiums to Indiana consumers in the same class for equivalent policies.” Id. at 100-01. Finally, the officer concluded that Ticor failed to pay premium tax on scheduled premiums and failed to identify premiums collected by its agents.

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Bluebook (online)
982 N.E.2d 9, 2012 WL 6608113, 2012 Ind. App. LEXIS 631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robertson-v-ticor-title-insurance-co-of-florida-indctapp-2012.